The Bottom 50% of People on Earth Have Only 1% of the Wealth

The gross economic inequality in America gets quite a bit of attention, at least from the non-rich. But when you look at the distribution of wealth in the entire world, the picture gets even more shocking.

Credit Suisse's annual Global Wealth Report breaks down the distribution of wealth around the world in several interesting ways. Some key figures:

-Average global wealth is $51,600 per adult (not per person).

-In Africa, the poorest continent, average wealth is $4,929 per adult. In North America, the wealthiest continent, average wealth is $296,004 per adult.

-North America and Europe each have about 1/3 of the world's total wealth. The rest of the world combined has the remaining 1/3.

-Having just $4,000 in wealth places you in the top half of the world's wealthy. It takes $75,000 to be in the top 10%, and $753,000 to be in the top 1%.

-The top 10% of the world's wealthy people own 86% of the world's wealth.

-The entire bottom half of the world's population by wealth owns only 1% of total global wealth.

That is appalling.

(And no, this data should not be interpreted to mean that poor people in wealthy countries should "consider themselves lucky.")